Commonwealth of England

The Commonwealth of England was a republic that existed in England from 1649 to 1653 and from 1659 to 1660, with London serving as its capital. The Commonwealth was proclaimed in 1649 after the overthrow of King Charles II of England by Oliver Cromwell's Parliamentarians during the English Civil War, and it existed as a nominal democracy until 1653, when Cromwell proclaimed The Protectorate as a military dictatorship. In 1659, the Protectorate Parliament was dissolved and the Rump Parliament recalled, the start of the process that led to The Restoration in 1660, when Charles II returned to power.